


It's not the war but what's behind it

by Ineffablemurderhusbands



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Boggarts, Enemies to Lovers, Insecurity, Lack of Communication, M/M, Patronus, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, bisexual!harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21665653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ineffablemurderhusbands/pseuds/Ineffablemurderhusbands
Summary: In the Wizarding World your corporeal patronus is your soulmate's inner animal.Harry one day finds out that his patronus is a snake.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 5
Kudos: 582





	It's not the war but what's behind it

**Author's Note:**

> I was totally going to make Harry's patronus a dragon but I thought it was too on the nose. Please leave kudos and comments, I have been toying with this idea for a while.

For Harry it was always quite obvious who his soulmate was. Since the first time he managed to do a corporeal patronus to save himself and Sirius in the Forbidden Forest he has known. In the magic community the corporeal patronus of someone was usually the animal that represented their soulmate’s spirit or animagus form if they had one. For that alone it was quite hard to know who your soulmate was, unless they were an animagus, which was extremely rare. But Harry knew the moment he saw the luminous snake spurting from his wand to defend Sirius and his past self from the Dementors. 

He hadn’t noticed at first. He was only happy that it had worked. Then it dawned on him late that same night as he laid on his bed. His soulmate was Draco. Harry wouldn’t deny that he entertained the thought that maybe he was wrong and his soulmate was someone else. But he knew that his gut wasn’t wrong. Draco Malfoy, the most stuck up and annoying person to ever walk this Earth, prince of Slytherin and Harry’s sworn enemy was his soulmate. It was safe to say that Harry was in denial for a while. He looked at Malfoy and thought: “Please he can’t be my soulmate. Look at him! I’m not even attracted to him, I’m completely straight.” But again, Harry knew he was only lying to himself. He couldn’t deny his childhood crush on Oliver Wood or how he always looked when Cedric Diggory walked past him. Harry couldn’t deny that he liked riling Malfoy up just to see his face turning read and that he sometimes day dreamed on kissing him silly just to see the look on his stupid face. So Malfoy was really his soulmate and he couldn’t let anyone know. 

Harry eventually did came out of the closet as bisexual sometime during the war. The war was the most difficult time to remember that his soulmate was Malfoy because they were definitely not on the same side. Harry couldn’t believe that his life was so fucked up that even his love life couldn’t give him a break. Why was he faded to suffer? He wondered. 

When Draco told those Death Easters that he couldn’t be sure if it was Harry or not when Harry knew that he was completely sure it was him, was that Harry started to finally accept that Draco was his soulmate. When Draco tossed his wand to Harry when he realized he was alive was that Harry didn’t cared that his soulmate was Draco. As he stood in front of the judge and told them that Draco and his mother were to walk free, Harry realized that he was completely in love with Draco. And he had been for quite some time while he wallowed in his self-denial. 

He told Rony and Hermione the next day to their shocked bafflement. Hermione was comprehensive, although she wasn’t particularly happy about it but Rony was furious. They spent a whole month without talking, which was quite hard since they were Auror partners. 

One day Ron just sighed and said: “So, Malfoy, huh?”

“Yep.” Harry muttered back. 

“You can’t tell me that this didn’t come as a shock to you.” He said. 

“No, I was pretty shocked.” Harry nodded. “But then I understood completely, we do complete each other.” 

“Yes, the git is the complete opposite of you.” He mumbled. 

“Not really.” Harry denied. “He is quite similar to me actually, we just had very different upbringings and responsibilities.” He sighed. Harry finally understood that now. “I can’t say that I wouldn’t be a Slytherin for example if I hadn’t begged not to.” 

“Yes, but Malfoy was a Death Eater.” 

“We’ve had this conversation before, Ron.” Harry pushed his glasses up to rub at his tired eyes. “It was expected of him to be one, it wasn’t like he wanted to, not when he finally understood what it entailed.” 

“I know.” Ron sighed. “I just can’t wrap my head around you being Malfoy’s soulmate.” 

“I don’t know if I’m his soulmate.” Harry suddenly said, what made his friend look at him. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Malfoy’s my soulmate, but I could not be his.” 

“Are you telling me that you haven’t told him that he is your soulmate?” 

“No!” Harry responded with a nervous grimace. 

“Merlin, Harry!” Rony exclaimed. 

“I KNOW!” 

After another dressing down from Rony, this one more exasperated than furious, he made his way to Draco’s shop in the Diagon Alley. Draco had grown to become a healer and a potions master, which Harry thought was neat considering his past. He had managed to build a solid reputation for himself despite everything and was known as the best healer in London. Harry had even heard rumors that he was being considered to work at Hogwarts next semester. 

As Harry entered the shop and heard the little bell ding above him, he felt his breath getting caught in his throat. 

“Just a minute.” Malfoy said, not looking up from the potion he was brewing. Malfoy had been wearing a white button up with the sleeves rolled up and a fitted dark blue vest on top of it. The sight of Draco’s dark mark so casually being displayed made Harry shudder at the memories it evoked but he realized how courageous Draco had to be to show it. Maybe there was a little Gryffindor in him.

Harry couldn’t see it but he was sure that he was wearing tight black trousers and shiny shoes, behind his counter. His fair hair was falling into his face and he had a concentrated frown in his forehead. Harry could not fathom what took him so long to come see him. 

As Draco finished his potion with a satisfied smile, he looked up, and that smile completely slid off his face. Harry almost grimaced at the feeling it gave him when he could cause Draco so much discomfort. 

“Potter.” He said calmly, his face passive as a marble statue. 

“Malfoy.” Harry responded, more aloof than stony. He was feeling a little lightheaded but being subject to that penetrating gaze after so many years. 

“Have you come to arrest me? I am certain I haven’t done anything to warrant a visit from out prestigious Auror department.” 

“No, nothing like that.” Harry said, finally being able to unglue himself from the entrance and walk towards the counter. “I’m here in a personal capacity.” 

“Oh?” The only glimpse of Draco’s surprise was his raised eyebrows. 

“Yes.” Harry huffed out. There it is, all or nothing. “Do you by any chance have any mandrake leafs?” That was not what Harry wanted to say at all but his brain had panicked and that was the only thing he could blurt out. 

“Yes.” Draco said slowly like Harry was dumb and honestly after his outburst he thought he was one too. Draco turned around to rummage his perfectly organized shelves. Honestly, Snape would be very proud of him. “Are you planning on becoming an animagus, Potter?” He asked casually and Harry choked. The mandrake leaf was the first ingredient that popped into his head due to his memorable first Herbology class. He still gave Neville shit about his fainting. 

“Sure.” He responded, feeling his voice crack. “Thought I should give it a try.” 

“You should buy more than one.” Draco said as he placed a jar on top of the balcony that said “Mandrake Leafs” in a pretty handwriting. “I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to give your mouth shut for a month in the first try.” He gave a little shit eating grin and Harry found himself staring at his lips. “250 galleons.” 

Harry didn’t even complain about the tease or the price, he merely paid up as Draco put the leafs in a black packaging. “Keep those in a dark ambient.” He said, handing the leafs over. 

“See you around, Malfoy.” Was all that Harry could say, before he scurried out of there. 

Harry kept coming back to Malfoy’s shop to buy increasingly ridiculous ingredients that he didn’t need, until Malfoy took pity on him and asked him for a drink. From there it was pretty simple to fall into a casual relationship that build into something more serious over time as they got reacquainted with each other and got to really know each other like they never did. 

From dinner with friends, Teddy’s birthday parties, lunches with Narcissa, job changes –from Harry, not Malfoy. Who would have known that Harry would give up being an Auror to become a Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor in Hogwarts? – fights, reconciliations, declaring their love for one another and moving in together, Harry hadn’t still been able to tell Draco the truth because he was afraid he would freak him out. 

“Have you ever performed a patronus?” Harry asked one night in bed, when Draco had been mostly asleep on his chest. 

“What’s up with this random question?” Draco mumbled sleepily as he frowned against Harry’s chest. He couldn’t see it but Harry knew that the little cute frown in the middle of his eyebrows was there. 

“Just humor me.” Harry answered. 

Draco sighed tiredly. “I’ve tried.” He whispered back. “I’ve never succeeded.” 

“Why not?” Harry asked. 

“Because I don’t think I’ve ever had a memory happy enough for it.” He whispered under his breath. Harry wouldn’t have heard it if he wasn’t paying attention. “Now, let me sleep.” He grumbled and the subject was dropped. But Draco couldn’t see how Harry eyes got misty and how he had to wipe away a few stray tears. That night Harry vowed to himself that he would make his life’s motto to make Draco as happy as he could so he didn’t have to sound so miserable ever again. 

Draco finally took up that job offer to work at Hogwarts after Madame Pomfrey retired. It was because of that job offering that he saw Harry doing his corporeal patronus for the first time. Draco wasn’t supposed to be walking by Harry’s class but an incident had happened in the Care of Magical Creatures that needed his prompt care so he had been making his way there when he found himself watching as Harry did a perfect patronus to the class complete aw. Draco almost rolled his eyes at his boyfriend’s gryffindorian eagerness to show off but he found himself staring at the magnificent snake that floated around the class. He would never imagine Harry’s patronus was a snake, Draco pondered as he quickly brought himself out of his stupor and walked away without Harry seeing him. It was something that could be Draco’s own if he wasn’t such a failure at performing one. As Draco walked down the magical stairs, he gasped and stopped moving as something clicked inside his mind. It couldn’t be possible. Could it? Harry could not be his soulmate. Sure they loved each other very much, but Draco always thought that someday Harry would get his senses and leave him. Part of him was aware that this was his self-doubt talking but it was still something ingrained inside of him. Also why would Harry not tell him? He has to have known that his patronus was essentially Draco in a nutshell, Harry couldn’t be that dumb, no matter what Draco called him when they were in Hogwarts. So why hadn’t Harry told him? Could it be that he didn’t think Draco was good enough to be his soulmate? Or that he was ashamed? Draco could understand why. Harry was the golden boy, the savior of the Wizarding World and Draco was a disgraced ex-Death Eater. Of course he wasn’t good enough for Harry. The whole wizarding community thought so and apparently so did his own boyfriend. 

That night Draco wanted to confront him and ask, but he was too scared to find out that Draco was right in his thoughts. Harry noticed that he was a bit standoffish but couldn’t think of a reason to why he was like that, so after dinner when Draco went to enchant the dishes to clean themselves, Harry tucked himself behind his boyfriend, hugging him from behind and kissing the bare nape of his neck. 

“You know that I love you more than anything in this world right?” He whispered against Draco’s neck, making him shiver. 

It was like a weight had been lifted from Draco’s shoulders, he instantly leaned back against Harry’s body. 

“I know.” He whispered. “But I don’t mind you reassuring me once in a while.” 

“I’ll reassure you for the rest of my life.” Harry said, kissing his shoulder. 

“Good.” Draco smiled, feeling foolish for his own anxious thoughts. Harry loved him and he had stated various times how proud he was to have Draco at his side. Harry must have a good motive to not tell him and Draco would respect his decision, but that didn’t meant that he couldn’t practice his own patronus charm when Harry wasn’t looking. Maybe now he was finally happy enough to succeed, only practice would tell. 

The first time Draco used his patronus spell successfully was because he needed to save Harry. Harry always attracted Dementors, like he was honey and they were a bear. Even if he was nowhere near Azkaban somehow he always attracted them, like that time in that tunnel with Dudley. As the war was won, they had thought that had ended, especially because the part of Voldemort who lived inside him was killed when Harry died. But that was not truth. Maybe Lupin’s theory was right. Since Harry had suffered greatly through his life the Dementors were attracted to that. As Harry resigned from being an Auror, he thought he would never encounter another Dementor in his life, especially because he wasn’t expecting to go anywhere near Azkaban. So imagine how surprised Harry was when he turned a corner deep into the bad part of Diagon Alley and found himself face to face with a Dementor. He was so caught off guard that he wasn’t fast enough to pull his wand and suddenly the Dementor was on top of him and Harry was petrified in fear. 

The only reason he had been venturing down the bad parts of the Diagon Alley was because his former boss in the Auror division asked him if he could check a lead they had on an old case of Harry’s that nobody in the division was quite familiarized with. Since Harry felt bad for leaving them with an unfinished case, he told him that he would do it. Which now caused him to be in the situation he was. 

There were many times in Draco’s life when he felt a pressure on his heart like it was going to burst. He had always thought it was his own anxiety so he hadn’t linked with the fact that it usually happened when Harry was in danger. Also probably because when Harry was in danger he tended to be in some form of distress as well. So when he felt it in his shop while he was making his inventory – Draco still went to his shop regularly, especially when Hogwarts wasn’t having class. – he knew that Harry was in danger. 

If you asked Draco how he managed to apparate to the same place Harry was without knowing, he wouldn’t be able to tell you. Maybe it was the soulmate thing but suddenly Draco found himself in the alley as he watched a Dementor right in front of Harry. Without thinking he took his wand out – Harry had eventually given Draco his wand back after he had testified for him and his mother. -, thought about the first time Harry told him he loved him and how it made him feel and shouted “Expecto Patronum!” 

A burst of white light flew out of Draco’s wand straight into the Dementor, a beautiful stag appearing. Harry widened his eyes at the vision and he noticed three things at the same time. Draco could do a patronus spell, he was Draco’s soulmate as much as Draco was his and the Dementor was actually a rogue Boggart. Retrieving his wand, Harry conjured a chest and Draco lead the awful thing there, where it was locked for good. After it was done, both of them sighed in relief and looked at each other. 

“How did you know I was in danger?” Harry asked. 

“I have no idea.” Draco said pocketing his wand. He realized his hand was shaking. “Aren’t you supposed to know how to deal with this? You’re an Auror and a DADA professor!” Draco huffed. 

“Ex-Auror and Dementors are a sore spot for me.” He mumbled. “You’re my soulmate, Draco.” He said in awe. 

“Yes.” Draco rolled his eyes. “And you’re mine.” 

“You knew?” Harry asked alarmed. 

“I knew I was your soulmate.” He said. “I saw you on class showing off and saw that your corporeal patronus was a snake. It didn’t took me long enough to figure it out.” 

“Why didn’t you said something?” Harry asked. 

“Why didn’t YOU said something?” 

“I was going to.” Harry whispered. “The day I went into your shop for the first time but I thought you were going to push me away if I told you right away and then once we started dating I thought that maybe you would freak out or that I wasn’t you soulmate like you were mine.” 

“Harry, you’re an idiot.” Draco huffed. 

“I know but why?” 

“I thought the same thing when I found out. And I also thought that maybe you were ashamed to have me as your soulmate.” Draco looked down, unable to look Harry in the eyes. 

“Draco…” Harry whispered, walking closer to his boyfriend and bringing his face up with his hands. “You’re the most precious person in my life. I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you, I’ve hurt you so much.” He placed a hand on Draco’s chest where the scars he had out there were a remainder of one of his biggest regrets. 

“I think we’ve both hurt each other a lot, Harry.” Draco took Harry’s hands in his. “But we found each other.” 

“Cheesy.” Harry teased him and Draco rolled his eyes. “I love you Draco.” 

“It’s funny, to do a successful patronus I thought about the first time you told me you loved me.” He confessed. “I love you too, you idiot.” 

Harry smiled brightly and kissed Draco deeply enjoying the moment. 

“Wait.” Draco broke the kiss. “How did you knew you were my soulmate? A stag isn’t really telling.” 

“Oh, I didn’t tell you? My father was an animagus, he was a stag.” Harry said with a smile as he held Draco’s hand in his and did a little wandless magic to send the box straight to his boss desk in the Ministry. 

“Oh really?” Draco said. “Makes me wonder if you would be one too, you know, if you had managed to do the spell after all those mandrake leafs you brought from me.” He said as they walked away from the creepy alley. 

“I’m never gonna live this down, am I?”

“No!” Draco responded with a giggle and Harry laughed, carefree. In just a couple of days he would ask Draco to marry him and he would say yes but that is another storie.


End file.
